The Ramsey Show - App - When Rental Properties Act Like Alligators (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 6, 2018

The show about you

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America. Thank you for joining us. It's all about you. The phone number is a free call, and some say the advice is worth what you pay for it. Yeah. The phone number, 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is Derek in Philadelphia. Hi, Derek. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Papa Dave. How are the grandbabies doing of yours? Man, they are growing up fast i carried the first one water ski and he's three and a half i carried him on my uh shoulder

the other day for the first time so scared his mama to death but it's good for him uh good well we have three and a half year old as well and we just got back from the beach not too long ago and she loved the sand that's fine i can relate with you there good times uh well great hey well thank you very much for taking a call uh been a been a huge listener. I read your book back in December, and I've been going through all your podcasts. I've been getting a lot of answers to some of the questions, but there was one question I had about a rental property that we do have, and I wanted to get your take on it. Okay. Right now, we're in baby step two. We started out with about $45,000 in debt.

We're down to about $25,000 now. Going at a pretty rapid pace. Good. How long did that take? That took since December, so about six months. Good. Okay. And so we have this rental property.

And I know you talk about personal finance, and it's more personal than finance. So I bought this rental property back in 2007 for $126,000. And unfortunately, I became a forced landlord. And we're at a point now that the renters are due up and they're not going to be renewing. And I just don't know whether or not to keep it or to sell it. And it's about $250 or so out of my pocket. But where the personal part comes in is that I know eventually my parents, when they retire, this could be an option for them when they have this other house. And so I'm stuck between on paper. To me, it may not make sense, but at the same time,

I know this might be something that can help my family in the future. Well, you can buy a property to lose money on any time. Okay. Like when they retire, if you want to buy another one to lose money on, you can buy a property to lose money on anytime. Okay. Like when they retire, if you want to buy another one to lose money on, you can buy another one then. So, I don't, you know, I love real property. I don't want to feed anything. This thing's an alligator, man.

I mean, it eats every morning. And so, now I'm going to, it's not a blessing to you. It's a curse. The only possible use for it is several years into the future for mom and dad. And if you get yourself squared around, maybe you can buy something for mom and dad at that point. But hanging on to something and feeding it, nah.

Can you break even at least on it, selling it? Well, I just talked to a realtor, and they're going for about $85,000 right now. It just has not recovered um and so if i could i'm lucky if i could break even on it and that's kind of where we're at right now well then there's a different discussion there okay because you're talking about what do you owe you owe what on it so i currently owe uh 72 000 okay and they're selling for around 85 okay so you can get out of it without putting any money in your pocket or writing any checks,

and it gets rid of the problem, and you're not able to write a $250 check. Yeah, I'm probably getting rid of that. Because the way I ask myself the question is I don't ask it looking back, and I don't ask it looking way forward in the future. I just say, gosh, if I didn't own this house today, would I take $10,000 or $15 15 000 cash and go buy a house for 85 000 that i lose 250 a month on no it's a quick answer right and so if i don't if i wouldn't buy it again then that means it's time to sell it okay and that's really true of almost anything in our life

i mean if you wouldn't buy it again if you wouldn't buy that boat again because we don't use it anymore i don't use a boat well then time to sell the boat you, if you wouldn't buy it again, if you wouldn't buy that boat again, because we don't use it anymore, I don't use a boat, well, then time to sell the boat. You know, if you wouldn't buy it again, whatever it is, then it's probably time to sell it, if it's something of substance, that is. So, yeah, I'm a big proponent of rental property, but not rental property that loses money. That thing sounds like it's a pain in the butt to me. Jonathan is with us in Chicago. Hey, Jonathan, what's up? Hey, so to get right to the point, I'm a nurse, a new nurse, although I am in my 40s. I have about $60,000 worth of student loan debt and other debt, including a used car, which I pay off in two years or less.

My question is, I'm not married. I don't own a home. I want to know, there's a government program. If I go work at an Indian Reservation hospital for two years, they give me up front $20,000 at the beginning of each year. So I pay back $40,000 within two, plus the other $20,000 or so. And what is the pay there? It's pretty comparable to what I actually make, you know, probably $28,000 or so an hour.

Okay. Are you willing to give up whatever lifestyle shift you have from Chicago to the reservation for two years for $40,000? Right now, I sort of am. I think I would be. I don't have anything for $40,000. You're single, and you're single. It could be like a little adventure, right?

Exactly. You're not committed to work there 10 years. You're committed to work there just through the year, and then they give you the $20,000, and then through another year, and they give you another $20,000, right? Exactly. And if you leave after that, no harm, no foul, right? Exactly.

I have no other commitments. So where is this particular reservation? We're actually all over. I mean, if you just Google Indian. Yeah, okay. So we're talking theory here. We're not talking about somebody is you've got you got a particular place selected well let me tell you the only thing i'd

add to it okay you have a wonderful career field that you've come into because you can land jobs anytime during any day multiple jobs doing all kinds of things as a nurse i mean your income potential is amazing. Okay? So you know what I would do if I were in your shoes? While you're doing this, because it's an adventure time, and it's all about getting out of debt time, right? I would pick a location close enough to a metro area that when you're not on board at the hospital on the reservation,

you can pick up ER shifts on the weekend and throw another 15 or 20 grand 30 grand on your income for a couple years here and let's just see how much cash we can pile up and not only bury this debt quickly but walk out of there with some money in your pocket my man yeah i was thinking exactly the same thing fortunately i do work in the er i have you know two years of level one i'm up oh that's wonderful that makes you very employable but my point is you can work like a wild man for two years like 60 80 hours and you make a hundred hundred and a half between these two gigs

and just really walk out there and go you may even be able to walk out and pay cash for a house somewhere depending on where you move to after this adventure is over. Okay. So that's how I would look at it. I wanted your opinion because I've heard your opinion on the 10-year. Oh, the 10-year sucks. But the underserved area, you know, when you can go into one of these rural areas or something like the reservation thing you're talking about,

or sometimes it's an inner city area, and they'll give you, you know, $40,000 or $50,000 in in two or three years that's a whole different scenario i'm all over that puppy and teachers can do that docs can do that nurses can do that it's a lot of possibility on student loan forgiveness or student loan repayment there's all kinds of incentive packages on that but the point is you have a uniquely wonderful career track that you can make a pile of money if you work like a maniac in a short period of time and really get some big-time financial goals hit very, very fast, and then slow down and enjoy a different rhythm, a different pace at that

point. Hey, cool, man. Get after it. Congratulations on passing the bar. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. I hate to see people waste money, and that's exactly what happens when you spend hundreds of dollars a year on ID theft

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This is your show. It's called The Dave Ramsey Show. Kimberly is with us in San Antonio. Hi, Kimberly. How are you? Good afternoon. I'm just great. Good.

I tried to get through earlier and got disconnected. I have kind of just a basic question. I'm in the middle of Financial Peace University, kind of scared tonight because we're turning in our debt snowball worksheet. So see how that goes. Okay. But it's helping us out to plan things out and we have hope now. So that was the whole point. My husband and I are 48 and 50. We have only together about $40,000 in 401Ks with our employer. Income-wise, 65K in our house is about 140K. We think it's worth about 150 now.

We bought it recently. Unfortunately, we have a lot of debt, and we're just trying to find out, is it too late for us to have a retirement? No. No, you've got plenty of time. I would rather you have started 20 years ago, and you would too, but this is the hand that you dealt yourself, and we're just going to work the system. You said you're 48?

48 and 50. I'm 50, and my husband's 48. How much debt do you have that's not your house? Not the house. Total, $132,000. On what? 14 as a car. The other one's paid off.

$19,000 is credit card debt and student loan debt. We just tallied it up, $99,000. That defaulted student loans from years and years ago before we were even married. But anyway, it's our debt now. So it's a long past that's still there with you okay yes long ago past that student loans just never go away all right and uh what's your household income um income for us take home pay is about 65k a year okay so you're making 90 a year give or take yeah 90 i think our tax is 91 000 yeah okay all right um so it takes you two years or three

years to get out of debt probably three of no life beans and rice rice and beans we actually are starting a second job at a retail outlet that is a grocery store to an evening job to supplement our income and found out we get a discount for groceries. Good. That's going to help. You're going to need it because you're not going to have a life. You're not going to see a restaurant.

You need to discount your groceries because you're going to be on the scorched earth. That was our light bulb when we saw how much we actually spend. Vacations. Vacations. You got nothing for three years no life for three years no life for three years complete scorched earth and um then let's just do the math i mean it's 33 000 a year and you're out of 100 000 is paid off in three years and you're 51 and 53 you have no payments but a house payment and you've learned

how to handle money then and you've learned to live on less than you make by then and you've learned to do stuff you've never done in your life to this point you've completely reshaped your brain by then it's going to be so encouraging for you you're going to be so on fire when you come out the other side of that now let's just fast forward, okay? It takes you another six months or so to get your emergency fund in place, and then we start your 401k, right? We start your Roth IRAs, and you start saving 15% of your income, and you do that for 15 to 20 years. You're going to have a half million to a million dollars when you retire. So it's not too late, but you have to do this now. You don't have a choice.

Now is the time. If you wait another five years, it's going to get really difficult, but you're going to have some money if you'll go through exactly the baby steps and exactly what we teach you to do, you're going to be fine for retirement. You're going to be able to win. But you've got to clear this debt. And most importantly, you've got to break what is basically 20 years of bad habits. That's very difficult to do. But you can do it. People reshape their brains all the time. They reshape their lives all the time. Lou Holtz says the most

powerful word in the English language is choice. And you just made a choice to change your life. I'm so proud of you. You can do this. It's going to be very difficult and it's going to be very worth it because it's going to turn into so much money and so much peace and so much quality communication between you and your husband. You're going to be in such great shape. Five years from today, you're going to look back and go, oh, I have no idea who those people were. I have no idea who those people were. We're completely different people now. And that's where you're headed.

That's your future. But you've got to play through and you've got to do this. And you call me if you get in the middle of this, get discouraged or scared. Because that's what we're here for. I want you to walk through this. And you stay in Financial Peace University. Go back through it or teach it or something else as you go along. Because you've got a bit of a road here. It's a hard three years starting ready,

set, go now. You can do this though and it's going to be worth it. I want you to read, if you start worrying about retirement, I want you to read Chris Hogan's book, Retire Inspired, which will tell you exactly what I just told you, that this is doable. So you hold on, I'll have Kelly pick up. I'm going to give you a copy of Retire Inspired because you can do it when you're 48 or 53 or 56. You can still do it. It's better to do it when you're 26. But, hey, you do what you got.

You know, I don't have that option anymore. I'm getting ready to be 57, so I don't have the option of doing 26. You got some of you 26-year-olds, you need to do this. You're 26, it's the option you got. It's a lot easier. It takes a lot less money to become wealthy then. So that's the process. You can do this. Hold on, I'll have Kelly pick up and we'll help you out. Nicole is with us. Nicole is in Austin, Texas. How are you, Nicole? I'm well, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, here's my question to you, Dave? I'm well, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Well, here's my question to you, Dave. I'm getting discouraged. I found you in February of last year, one year after I got divorced from my ex-husband. I'm now remarried, and my husband finished his undergraduate degree, and we combined have $150,000 in debt. I'm 24 years old. My husband is currently applying for medical school. So we are on your plan 150%. But the more we look at the math, the more I wonder if there isn't something I'm missing with going to medical school right now. Well, I mean, you can't go to medical school in the traditional way, and that's $250,000 more in debt.

Right. So we're living with my parents, so we've cut our expenses down to nothing. We've paid off about $10,000 in debt since I found you in February. That's wonderful. We're set to pay off another $54,000 before he would start med school, only on his income, and that's not counting me. I'm a business owner as well. This next month I'm planning on bringing in about $4,000. How are we paying for med school?

Well, I guess that's the question. He was intending to take out more loans, and I felt like that was just the only way to do it. Recently I read Smart Money, Smart Kids by you and your daughter, and I found just a little section on trying to pay for school without. So now I've got them applying for scholarships and grants, you know, left and right. We spend about two hours a day doing that. Good, good.

And we're hoping to get by. Let me give you a hint on that on medical as well. There's two areas you need to really lean on, and that's the drug companies, because they love to help docs out in the future, future docs out, right? And the other thing I would do is I'd look at some of the big hospital companies like the HCAs and those kinds of things. They're trying to recruit docs into these rural areas or some inner city areas and things, and sometimes they'll do a lot of help with medical school.

You may have to commit to work for them for a few years coming out, maybe a little bit of an indentured servant thing, right that that's fine i'll still do that uh but i've talked to docs and i talked to an attorney the other day a lady who graduated from law school completely debt-free got her got her law degree but she did it with scholarships and uh internships and you know uh and grants and you know just kept poking around and finally she, she just, she worked her way through. And she was a bright girl. I mean, really bright young lady. And so it can be done.

I will tell you, it's very difficult. And it's because it's so weird. It's so not normal. But $250,000 in student loan debt is also difficult. Smotheringly difficult. So I would do anything that was moral or legal to avoid that if I were in your shoes. It's going to be very hard, but it's going to be worth it. It seems to be a theme this summer.

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Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Walker and Brandy are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? We're good. Well, how are you? Better than I deserve.

Where are you guys from? We're from Lakeland, Florida. Oh, Orlando area then. Yes, sir. And who'd you bring with you? Who are these two ladies? This is Elle. She's nine and Chandler, 14.

Our daughters. Very cool. Good to have you here to do a debt-free screen. We are. And how much have you paid off? $52,689. Very cool. And how long did that take?

Right at 30 months. Good. And your range of income during that time? Well, we started in the low 80s, and we went down for a little bit. And then, because Walker changed jobs, and now we're back up to about 85. Okay, cool. What do you do? I'm in sales for a wine and liquor company.

And I work at a brewery in the Tampa area, Cigar City Brewing. Oh, yeah. Very cool. Well, good to have you guys. Thanks. Pleasure to have you. So what kind of debt was the $53,000? Well, it's a little bit of everything. Credit cards, lots of credit cards, two car loans, personal loan, and that's

about it. So you guys were pretty normal. Yeah. A little bit of every kind of debt. Yes. Kind of bopping along. What happened two and a half years ago? Well, that's where I think I come along. One of my dear friends, Rick and Sherry Reed, they gave me the You're in Rachel's book. And I got to the second chapter, and I thought, how am I ever going to teach my kids this if we're not doing well with money ourselves? So I went and got your book,

The Total Money Makeover, and said, you're going to read this? and we're going to get on this journey. And that's kind of what happened. Okay. So, Walker, what was your response? You know, in the beginning, I was like, you know, I thought I could earn my way out of a lot of things. You know, it was kind of like, you know, we work hard. We have a strong work ethic, both of us, and then watching her and the frustration and doing the meetings and things like that,

I realized that I couldn't do it the way that we were doing it. Something needed to change. Okay, cool, cool. Well, congratulations. Thank you. $53,000 in 30 months. What do you tell people the key or keys to getting out of debt are? Well, work.

We worked a lot. But I think for us was around the time that he switched jobs was when every dollar came out. And we really felt like we didn't lose money, but we were actually, we had gotten a raise, even with the decrease in income. So that was really powerful for us. And for me, it was not getting beyond the steps that we were on,

focusing on step two and not thinking about step seven, not getting overwhelmed, because for me that was kind of like easy to do, look at the whole picture instead of the picture I was on. Once I was able to relax in that, it became a lot easier. Very cool. Being plugged in too. We will a lot easier. Very cool. Being plugged in, too. We listen to your show every day. We went to a smart conference when you had it in Orlando.

We just went to Smart Money. And if we hadn't have done those things, I mean, I really think it would just be hard to just continue on just working so hard and, you know, not spending any money. So it was nice to have that, you know. Yeah, it's easier to win the game when you go to the pep rally. Absolutely. It really is. And sometimes that's all the live event is. I mean, it's not like you hadn't heard this stuff before.

Exactly. But, you know, even some of the jokes, I mean, my goodness, you know, some of it's just really predictable. But it's, you know, that's part of what an event is. It's a happening, and then it gives you energy to keep moving. Well, congratulations. Thank you. How long have you guys been married?

Ten years. Yeah. Be 11 years October. And have you ever been out of debt before? Never. Never. How's it feel? Still getting used to it.

Still getting used to it. We saved to come here, so we still haven't spent any money. Never. How's it feel? Still getting used to it? Still getting used to it. We saved to come here, so we still haven't spent any money. Good. So Chandler and Elle, did they get into this, or did they just endure it, or how'd that work? No, they were so on board. I'm telling you, we are blessed with two kids that, I mean, it's emotional because they really worked hard. They dealt with the no's. It was, they did great.

I mean. Now you're set up to live like no one else, right? A funny quick story. We were riding horsebacks and stuff like that. And I told Ella, she's like, oh, we need some property so we can have horses. I said, well, we need to go back and debt snowball for that. And she goes, no, no. No, I don't want a horse.

No, we don't need any property we'll just rent the horse it's all good yeah that's great yeah very cool you guys we've got a copy of chris hogan's retire inspired book for you that's the next chapter in your story thank you we want you guys to be millionaires and outrageously generous along the way okay definitely so very well done all right it's walker brandy chandler and l orlando florida lakeland florida area 53 000 paid off in 30 months making 80 and then it went down and then it went back up to 85 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream girls three two one 2, 1. We're dead free! That's how it's done right there.

Man, that's awesome. Very, very well done. Very well done. Thanks for joining us, you guys. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Keith is with us in Minnesota. Hi, Keith. How are you?

Blessed and highly favored. How are you, Dave? The same, sir. How can I help? Well, I've been in the construction industry for about the last four and a half years doing granite and quartz countertops. But since taking Financial Peace University last October, I really found a passion and a little bit of direction heading into helping people in that area as well. So I guess my question is, what is the best way to enter into the financial advising planning

area with little to no college experience or trained education. Okay. Well, college is not required in those areas. There's kind of two ways to do it, so to speak. One way is to go work for a company that sells something like mutual funds or insurance. I would recommend mutual funds. And the money is made there, obviously, by selling the mutual fund to somebody when they come in for help with their investing you help them with their investing in your own commission

and you know that's the what we call the product side of the business because you're selling the product of the investment uh you have to be able to pass a securities test to do that they're pretty heavy test uh but but if you're decent with um you know with math and test taking and so forth you can take classes on taking the test and get in and there are uh advising firms out there that will hire you to go in and do that like our elps as an example uh the second side of the pro of the business is a little bit more a little less straightforward it's more weird and that's kind of our side of the business. And that's just where you're some kind of a teacher or a coach, so to speak.

And we have folks that come here and are trained to be financial coaches. And then they just charge a fee for someone, an hourly fee or a flat fee to help them, you know, get their stuff together and get going. And that's called a fee-only business. Most of the business of those types of coaches that are trained here is not working with wealthy people. It's working with people that are struggling or that are just regular folks that are trying

to get their budget going, and they need a budget coach. They need a coach to help them get on the same page with their giving and their marriage and that kind of a thing. You can keep studying while you're doing that and, you know, grow into estate planning and grow into even investment advice on a fee basis if you want to. All of those things are proper and legal. There aren't as many people making a living doing that as there are the other way, but that's kind of the two ways to go at it. A percentage of the people that come here to be trained as a coach

just do it as a volunteer at their church, and it's just for fun, and they just do it because they want to be helpful and that kind of thing, and that kind of gets them started. And then some of them go straight into business. Others have the idea that they're going to do some going to do it as a ministry or whatever at their church for a while and then come out as a business later, which is actually how I did it. Obviously, there was nothing going on around here then. I mean, I was just helping some people do a budget at my church, and then I started charging to do financial counseling outside of my church to people that did not attend my church.

And that business began to grow, and then I started doing some speaking. And then, obviously, the whole Dave Ramsey thing has happened over the years since then. That's kind of the two ways you can get out of the business. This is the Dave Ramsey Shadow. For years, I refused to endorse any company that claimed to get people out of timeshares. I told my listeners it's a horrible product and that unfortunately they didn't have a lot of options. Then a few years ago, I sat down with Brandon Reed, the owner of Timeshare Exit Team. Brandon walked me through the timeshare industry and I learned that you can't sell them and you can't even give them away.

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Jennifer is on the line in Greensboro, North Carolina. Hi, Jennifer. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a question. We are currently on Baby Step 2. We just started the program about two months ago. A year ago, we purchased our home. It was built in 1994, and we knew some things have to be replaced with age. Just the roof is coming up and things like that that we're saving for. But one thing we did not anticipate was the siding. It was actually made with the mezzanite siding and the siding is just awful. We replaced a lot of rot

when we first moved in but now a year later we're having to replace more. And not only that, the house just needs to be painted. We're told it needs to be painted about every five to eight years with this type of siding. And I'm just kind of concerned on how I need to go about this. We're really in gazelle intensity right now because we're wanting to have baby number two, but we want to pay off our debt before we do that. So I'm kind of not sure exactly how to go about this. If I should just fix the rot right now for a couple hundred dollars and kind of hold off as long as possible to paint the house, because we got a quote on that for about five grand.

So I'm not sure exactly where to go. What's your household income? My husband's commission ranges between 70 and 75. And he's the sole income? No, I am actually. Oh, I'm sorry. You said your husband's commission makes... Oh, I'm sorry.

My husband, he's commission, but our household income together, I make about $50,000. He makes about roughly $20,000 to $25,000. I thought you said $75,000. Our household, he's $20,000 to $25,000. I'm $50,000. Sorry. Okay, so your household's around $75,000. And you've got how much debt you're trying to pay off?

$26,000. Okay, and what is that on? 18's on the car. The rest is credit cards. Okay. Well, you've got three goals that are competing for the same dollars. And we have to order those goals, is what you're saying, meaning we have to put them in priority. And you decide that. The goals are baby, siding, and debt.

Right? Yes. And so we just decide which of those is going to come first or, you know, what can we do to cause one of them to go faster or can we take a slow step on one or the other you know what what you know what kind of moves can we make and you just kind of kind of talk that through uh i hear an eighteen thousand dollar car that's in the way of a lot of this yes and i would trade uh i would get rid of the car in order to accelerate getting out of debt, in order to have a baby, in order to do the sighting after I patched the sighting.

And I think you can get to all of that in a year without the car. Now, with the car, you've got a year probably to get the debt gone. And then when it's gone, then you can talk, you know you know baby or sighting and that's an easy choice we patch the sighting have babies then fix the sighting but um you know can the sighting make it a year you got a leak if you got something that's going to be damaged and but if you can spend 500 or a thousand dollars and avoid a five thousand dollar hit today and that buys you a year on the sighting then you accomplish some of these other goals. But me, I'm dumping that car, not because the car is a killer, but because, hey, it solves a lot of the problem real fast.

Yes. You know, what are my big goals? And owning the car was way down on that list of goals versus babies or versus rotten siding, for that matter. You know, and so I think you just kind of lay it out that way and start to look and say, what I'm going to do, what the Ramseys would do, there's not a wrong answer here. You're going to do all three. It's a matter of when and in which order.

Correct? And so, you know, what we would do is we would try to do the sing last, but that would mean we'd have to do some kind of a patch and we'd have to live with probably some ugliness, but something that it's functional but isn't pretty for a year. Okay. And because a year from now, you know, you should have the $5,000. Baby should be on the way and you should be debt free. Okay. Does that make sense? Out of5,000. Baby should be on the way, and you should be debt-free. Okay. Does that make sense? Out of $75,000.

Yes, yes. I can see all of that happening, particularly if you drop the car. Yes. And so, you know, I can see all of that happening. So it's just a matter of when during that year which of these things occurs. And, you know, because your income is the larger share of the household income you taking time off with a child damages the mathematics obviously i wouldn't use that as the only reason to say when to have a child necessarily around

data around the other issues but you've just got to think that through it's part of the equation and you just you know you just critically think it through so i think you're on track i would just line those three things out and say what is my least priority um and you know because your income is the larger line share of the thing i'm gonna try to get the debt cleared that might mean i sell the car before the baby comes and then i'm gonna start having babies and siding comes distant third after those two things if it's around the ramsey house but that's assuming the place isn't leaking and falling down and rotting um and so i don't know you know what you're dealing with but it sounded like the way you described it the masonite siding could have some repair and it's just uglier than cred right now because it needs a paint job and it's probably going to have some other little minor things happen if you wait a whole year but you don't

want to wait five years you need to get this thing painted you need to get on a regular painting schedule because it's going to come up you may even want to put other siding over it so that you don't have an ongoing maintenance issue long term. That's even a bigger expense than five grand. So you've got other ways you can look at this, but all of that's further down the list of things to do. The other thing I would do if I'm in your husband's shoes is I'm going to look at other ways to get my income up during this time and maybe permanently for that matter because $25,000 on commissions is pretty thin to get my income up during this time, and maybe permanently for that matter,

because $25,000 on commissions is pretty thin, and hopefully that's heading towards more based on his career track and so forth. So, hey, good question. Thanks for calling in. You know, Sharon and I learned to do that exact thing when we were first working through learning how to handle money after the bankruptcy. When we said we don't borrow money anymore. Once you draw that line of the sentence, I don't borrow money, from then on you have to prioritize your life

because there's never enough money to do everything you want to do because as soon as you have more money, you have more wants. Most of them are wants. They're not needs. Most things that you spend money on i spend money on are wants most people don't have trouble in america today buying food now there are some people that do there's hunger is a real thing and i'm not making fun of that but most people can buy food most people can you know but take care of the basics of life they work enough

they have enough income to do that in most cases. And the other cases are sad, and that's a different discussion. Okay. But, you know, for most of us, it's a want. So what is the want? You know, what do we want? Do we want this car? Do we want this baby? Do we want this, you want another child, you know, at this time in our life? And I remember I had some stuff I wanted to do at the office. I wanted to do some investing here inside the company, some growth. The company was young.

And my wife was driving a 1984, I kid you not, blue Astrovan. You remember the old two-tone blue Astrovans? Probably one of the ugliest cars ever made and we've got little kids and this thing has like eight bazillion miles on it we had run the wheels off this thing and we had some money i mean we had some money coming and we had an extra about 50 000 bucks coming through in the coming 12 months, it looked like. And we got in this big argument about whether we buy her a car or whether we use that money to invest and grow the business. And, you know, the mistake we made, and that was the last time we made the mistake, was we acted like that if we did one, we would never do the other.

And it wasn't an invest in the business and not do the car. It wasn't a do the car and not invest in the business. And that's what finally we woke up and realized. It was we were going to do both. It was just a matter of when. Which one was first? That was the only argument. And she won the argument because she was right.

So she got a nice little white Suburban out of the deal, used, of course. And then later on in the year, I was able to do some of those other investing elements in the business. And, well, the business is still open and we no longer have the Suburban. We've got nicer cars now. So, you know, but it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when in most cases. You learn to prioritize out which things first when you're not willing to borrow money. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey guys, this is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show.

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